Gamercide News

Loss, sadness, fear, darkness, beauty, strength. These words are just a few that can describe the journey that Senua goes through in her 6 to 8 hour journey to Helheim in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. A Celtic warrior returning from a Viking raid, to find her love sacrificed to the Norse Gods, she embarks on a journey to save his soul from Hela (The Norse goddess of death). From the outset we begin to learn just how broken our protagonist is both physically, but most of all mentally. As we begin the journey, you hear them...the whispers in Senua's head. At first you feel they are just coming from around you. Hidden faces within the landscape perhaps? The multiple voi…

No Man's Sky has become one of the most divisive games in recent memory. There are 3 camps surrounding this game, with a few exceptions here and there. First up, like me, there are those that enjoy the game immensely (I'll discuss why in a bit). Secondly, you have the people on the fence. These are people that will eventually play a little more and fall on one side or the other. Last, but not least, there are those disappointed and/or hate the game completely. Now, I'm not looking to change anyone's mind about their thoughts or even help someone in that second group make a decision. The opinions below are mine and mine alone. I hope we can start a dialogue about w…

Blue Isle Entertainment is most well known for Slender: The Arrival. Being fans of being scared by games, I'm sure you know their work. It was a good update and expansion of Mark Hadley's original game. However we aren't here to discuss that one. Maybe another time if you'd like. No, today we're here to discuss (As you can see from the title) Blue Isle's new game Valley. This one may have flown under the radar of many people, however I can say it shouldn't. I went in blindly with this one and came out the other side very impressed by what I played, how it looked, and even the super tight controls. With all that said, let's do this. Going in with no preco…

Developed by: Paradox Interactive Published by: Paradox Interactive Platform: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Ipad Release: 6 December 2011 Defenders of Ardania is an upcoming tower defense game, set for release in December this year. It is set in the fantasy world of Ardania, the same world from the Real Time Strategy series, Majesty, also published by Paradox Interactive. We were given a chance to play a preview build of the game. In it, players take the role of the human leader, referred to as “Your Majesty” as they attempt to figure out why Sir Foxwalde has attacked. Rest assured that the story progresses much further than that, with players utilising and fighting units …

Developed by: Paradox Interactive Published by: Paradox Interactive Platforms: PC Release Date: 9/13/2011 Sengoku, a grand strategy game based on the “Sengoku Jidai” or “Warring-States” period of Japanese history will be released by Paradox Interactive on September 13th this year. This first look is based of a preview copy of the game, and so will not fully reflect the final copy. During my preview session with Sengoku, I was given the chase to play through some some campaigns as various clans. This preview will detail my experience with one of them. When you first go into single player, you are greeted with a nice view of the entirety of Japan, along with the various his…

The Razer Onza is Razer's first proper attempt at making a gamepad for consoles. Can this gamepad created by a company known for making some of the fanciest PC gaming peripherals around live up to the hype, or is it not the godly, k/d count enhancing, reaction boosting uber controller that everyone makes it out to be? The Razer Onza comes in two varieties. The first is the $50 Razer Onza Tournament Edition which has everything the standard Xbox 360 controller has (aside from chatpad compatibility), with added features including: two extra multi-function buttons on the shoulder that can be mapped to any other button on the controller (excluding the d-pad), adjustable resis…

Twisted Pixel and Zen Studios have teamed up to bring us another table in the number one pinball simulator on gaming consoles, Pinball FX 2. Ms. Splosion Man graces us with her presence in this latest release. Does it live up to the standards set by Marvel and the other Zen Studios tables? Splode on through and let’s see. Big Science labs is the setting for this latest entry and much like the 2 games in the series, none of the experiments are going quite as planned. With Splosion Man captured, she will have to utilize all the gadgets in the lab to save him from the Mighty Eternal. Much like the full non-pinball game, the main goal of the table is to ‘splode’ as much…

With the release of another Marvel character themed table for Pinball FX 2, Zen Studios has brought us another amazing table to their pinball simulator. This time Captain America gets the royal treatment with a World War II themed table that doesn’t disappoint. Every detail of the table is well done and screams Captain America. Bright colors and array of different lights, bumpers, and spinners all animate to bring the table alive. You’ll see Cap standing guard over the table and the villains coming and going as necessary. Voice work and animations are solid and the missions available are extremely varied. Whether you are searching for Bucky and the Howling Commandoe…

Title: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs Developer: The Chinese Room / Frictional Games Publisher: Frictional Games Genre: First-person Horror Adventure Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux Release Date: September 10, 2013 Price: $19.99 (USD) Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs has extremely big shoes to fill. The original, Amnesia: The Dark Descent has been heralded as one of the scariest games to date, spawning thousands of Let's Plays, reaction videos, and hilarious stories. Frictional Games did a fantastic job with a small team, a limited budget, and an incredibly large imagination. But how did A:AMfP fare? I’ll be honest. Not well. I went into this game with the expectations not of the …

Developer: Ninja Bee Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Platform: Xbox Live Arcade Release Date: Wednesday October 26, 2011 Genre: City Building Players: Single Player, Local Multiplayer Rating: ESRB E for Everyone Price: 320 Microsoft Points Distribution: Xbox Live Marketplace Little blue aliens are landing and invading your world in Ninja Bee's 2010 followup to A Kingdom of Keflings, A World of Keflings. These friendly, tiny, and so humorous bundles of joy are looking for you to help build them an alien friendly kingdom. Do you have what it takes to build a kingdom for aliens? Let's fire up that Xbox, hit play on A World of Keflings, and find out in our review of A World…

Developed by: X10 Studios Players: 1 Platforms: PC (Available through Gamer's Gate, Desura, Steam, Direct2Drive, and directly from X10) Drawing from various classics such as Metroid and Mega Man X, A.R.E.S. Exinction Agenda is the first chapter in an episodic side-scrolling shooter. Set in the 21st Century, Earch is over polluted and we are facing extinction. A processing station is sent in to Earth orbit to help with this problem, but is overrun by "zytron" that kills the station's systems and turns all the machines hostile. ARES is a robot tasked with clearing out the station, rescuing the hostages, and stopping the machines. Graphically the game is quite impressive. Th…

Developed by: LudoCraft Ltd. Published by: LudoCraft Ltd. Platforms: PC Release Date: Dec 5th, 2012 Available on Steam for $14.99 (3/25/13 - On sale today for $5.09 which is 66% off!!!) If last year you approached me to say you had an idea to create a game where you pilot hot air balloons which are loaded up with cannons, rockets and flamethrowers I would have to say my interest would have been piqued. Throw in persistent character leveling, hilarious taunts (you really have to hear these to believe them), ship boarding, round it all out with two opposing forces of vikings and pirates and I would have told you to shut up and take my money! Thanks to Steam's GreenLight ser…

Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Annecy (multiplayer) Published by: Ubisoft Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 Players: 1 offline, with 4-8 player multiplayer Rated M (Mature) by the ESRB Assassin's Creed II was a great game and improved upon the already revolutionary first Assassin's Creed in almost every conceivable way. With Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Ubisoft aims to improve even further upon an already great series, even adding a completely new multiplayer mode. But is it worth the full price, or is it little more than an expansion? You don't need to read to the end of this review to know my personal impression of this game. The answer is yes, the game is absolutely …

Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal Published by: Ubisoft Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC (reviewed) Players: 1 offline with 8 player multiplayer It's that time again, where we sharpen our hidden blades and get ready to brutally assassinate hundreds of inept guards in our quest for the truth.You once again take up the mantle of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, now an old man, but still every bit as capable as in his previous outings. The formula still holds true, and most of the features from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood have returned. Main story missions are in Sequences, or chapters, and most of them have bonus objectives to complete for full synchronization (a better score). Almost …

Developer: Bit Barons Players: Single Player Genre: Puzzle Platforms: PC and Mac Release Date: January 27, 2011 Price: $13.99 on the Official Website for Astroslugs Easy to Navigate Menus New developer Bit Barons is making their PC and Mac debut game with Astroslugs. This cute, vivid, and vibrant puzzle game has what it takes to make Bit Barons a household name, but the question is, can Bit Barons deliver? In Astroslugs, you play as a small purple slug who is traveling the universe activating slugballs in the form of ancient glyphs in order to fuel the slugs space ship. [ Easy Does It.... The slugballs are found by traveling the universe and putting them together by…

Developed by: CyberConnect2 Published by: Capcom Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360 Players: 1 Betrayed by his fellow demigods. Locked away in Hindu hell for 12,000 years, his rage building all the while. Asura's wrath is great indeed, and now he has returned to set things right. Let's clear one thing up right away. As much as it might seem so, this is not a Japanese God of War clone. There are certainly some similarities, but Asura's Wrath is very different from God of War or other similar hack'n'slash titles. In fact very few, if any, games are all that much like Asura's Wrath at all. The approach taken is quite unlike most games you may have seen. You spend as much time wat…

88 miles per hour, a DeLoreon, stolen plutonium, 1.21 gigawatts, and a Flux Capacitor. Those are the things it takes for time travel to be possible. Thanks to Doc Brown we know this and understand it. Sort of. I mean, what the hell is a gigawatt anyway. I guess for the purposes of this review that's neither here nor there. Just know this going in, Doc is in trouble and it's up to you to control Marty and figure out what's going on and save Doc.The game starts in a very familiar way, but with some subtle differences. Einstein is loaded in to the DeLoreon and sent 1 minute in to the future. This is where things that you thought you knew, go off the rails. Once you take c…

Developed by: Cold Beam Games Published by: Cold Beam Games Platforms: PC, PS3 Players: 1-2, online and offline Rated E for Everyone by the ESRB Beat Hazard in itself was an extremely fun music visualizer slash space shooter often compared to Geometry Wars. Rightly so, as the basic gameplay is much the same, with the onslaughts of enemies coming at your omnidirectionally firing ship, equipped with devastating, screen clearing bombs. The twist is that the gameplay is powered by your music. Your firepower is immediately influenced by the intensity of a song, while enemy and boss spawn patterns are determined by various factors throughout the entire song. Every song generate…

While the three in the title might lead some to believe this is the third game in the Bejeweled series, it is actually the fifth and the only direct sequel to Bejeweled 2.This fantasy themed variation on the same is a far cry from the original Bejeweled released ten years ago with only two modes of play. Bejeweled 3 provides players with 8 modes of play and 8 types of gems to swap. Bejeweled 3 brings back 4 traditional modes of play, as seen in Bejeweled 2, and adds 4 new modes. Returning on the platform are Classic mode, Zen mode, Lightning mode, and Quest mode. Classic mode is the basic Bejeweled game at its core. Players continuously swap gems until there are no more m…

Developed by: Bitfield GmbH Platforms: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later Players: 1 Rated 4+ by Apple Application Ratings. ( contains no objectionable material ) Blockado Deep Sea is the fourth and most difficult installment of the Blockado series. With the change of difficulty also comes a change of scenery. As the name would imply your puzzle solving skills are put to the test under the sea. The sea overlay and subtle ocean sounds provide a nice relaxing atmosphere to solve the puzzles in. Deep Sea builds on the Blockado puzzle solving series where you must get a treasure chest t…

BloodRayne hasn't had the best track record. A couple of lackluster action games from the last console generation probably doesn't have many excited for this new iteration. Will the drastic departure from the original's style be enough to win over new fans? Let’s delve in to this 2D blood fest and see what we get. When WayForward announced they were working on a Bloodrayne title for XBLA, it was a pretty big shock. Their last game, A Boy and His Blob was really. A button dedicated to sucking the blood out of your enemies is a HUGE departure from the dedicated button for hugging. I've never been a fan of the Bloodrayne series, but I think I've been converted after this one…

Developed by: Ice-pick Lodge Published by: bitComposer Games, Viva Media Platform: PC Players: 1 Rated T by the ESRB Cargo takes place in a vibrant world where a well meaning but incompetent group of mechanical gods have flooded the planet and broken gravity. This has resulted in humanity being on the verge of extinction, and has left a random assortment of their objects orbiting the earth. The very Gods responsible for humanity's demise have decided to replace us, and all our rubbish, with a new form of life called 'Buddies' . Buddies only have one purpose and that is to have fun. This is where you come in. You are piloting a blimp searching for salvage when you crash in…

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Developed by: Konami Published by: Konami Platform: Xbox 360 (XBLA) Players: 1 (2-6 players online) Rated T (Teen) by the ESRB The Breakdown Castlevania is a traditionally single player only franchise, not known for having any multiplayer. Will Konami's first truly multiplayer focused Castlevania title please fans, or is it a disappointment? Read on to find out. The Important Stuff Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is essentially a loot game. You don't level up your character in the game like Symphony of the Night, but rather you increase your stats by getting better weapons, armor, and accessories. This may sound a bit strange at first, but …

Developed By: Double Fine Published By: THQ Platforms: XBLA, PSN Players: Single Release Date: October 19, 2010 and October 20, 2010 Price: $15.00 on PSN and 1200 MS Points Version Reviewed: XBLA It's every candly loving fiend's favorite undead holiday, Halloween. As two siblings argue over who is going to lead their night of Trick or Treating, they have no clue what is in store for them, but the monsters that have taken over their once quiet neighborhood are determined to make sure that they find out. Double Fine and THQ take a stab at adventure/role playing with their latest arcade friendly title, Costume Quest. In Costume Quest you will find yourself in the middle of a…

Developed by: Techland Published by: Deep Silver Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Players: 1-4 Rated M for Mature by the ESRB It's the zombie apocalypse and you're trapped in paradise, or is it hell? Regardless, you must fend for yourself and meet up with other survivors to get through this calamity. Fortunately, you've brought some friends. Dead Island is a four player cooperative open world zombie role-playing game. That's certainly a mouthful, but it makes for a surprisingly fresh concept considering how oversaturated the market for zombie games is. There are plenty of zombie games, and even more RPGs, but surprisingly few hybrids of the two, not counting RPGs that happe…